LMDE has stopped working [sort of SOLVED]

[Tony.B]

@ mads
I ran the first instruction

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sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

- and it immediately switched off my laptop.

I don't think that was meant to happen.

[msuggs]

Have you tried upgrading your system again?

when you get to the login screen run the following:

Press ctrl-alt-f1

sudo su
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

This may clear up any errors the previous upgrade made. Also, you'll probably find you need an ethernet cable to get the job done.

[Tony.B]

Have you tried upgrading your system again?

Thanks for that idea, omns. I did as you suggested, but got the report that there are no new updates available. Perhaps it would be a good idea to try this again in a couple of days' time.

[mads]

@ mads
I ran the first instruction

Code: Select all

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

- and it immediately switched off my laptop. I don't think that was meant to happen.

Ok, jump over that command, and run the rest, i.e.:

Code: Select all

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Click OK and choose "Reconfigure graphics", click OK and choose "Use default (generic) configuration". Restart X (or reboot your computer)

[msuggs]

^ LMDE doesn't have and will ignore an xorg.conf so I'd imagine the first step would generate an error. Reconfiguring the xserver won't do alot as X is already working.

Next thing I would try is to purge and reinstall gdm

Ctrl-alt-f1

sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdm3

[Tony.B]

... Next thing I would try is to purge and reinstall gdm

Ctrl-alt-f1

sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdm3

Thanks, omns, for this advice. Following these instructions seems to have changed things:

(a) sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm3 gave me a long list of warnings
(b) sudo apt-get update produced a huge list of "failed to fetch" files.
(c) sudo apt-get install gdm3 didn't give me any OMiNouS messages. (Sorry, omns, I couldn't resist that!)

Now, when I attempt to reboot LMDE, I no longer get the blue log-in screen. It seems to remain in terminal. Is this progress or regress?

Thank you, as always, for your help.

[linuxviolin]

Haha, so here is one of the first "big" problem with this rolling edition. Well, it will be not the last...

@ azathoth

When I used/tried Debian Testing, and/or Parsix, at the time, I have never been to init3 for the updates and I have always used Synaptic, a graphical package manager. Never had problem with this. And about a mix with Sid, er, I had used some stuff from Sid, but chosen with great care and which didn't replace, or almost, some other things except the app package itself. No problem here also, but you must be very careful and to control you because it is quite easily very quickly to go too far...

Tony.B, why you ask so many problems? Reinstall, simply. This is much simpler. Just save your stuff, unless you made a /home or a /data partition...

[azathoth]

Haha, so here is one of the first "big" problem with this rolling edition. Well, it will be not the last...

@ azathoth

When I used/tried Debian Testing, and/or Parsix, at the time, I have never been to init3 for the updates and I have always used Synaptic, a graphical package manager. Never had problem with this. And about a mix with Sid, er, I had used some stuff from Sid, but chosen with great care and which didn't replace, or almost, some other things except the app package itself. No problem here also, but you must be very careful and to control you because it is quite easily very quickly to go too far...

Tony.B, why you ask so many problems? Reinstall, simply. This is much simpler. Just save your stuff, unless you made a /home or a /data partition...

Those are the official recommendations from Debian for testing and Sid and aptosid's stern instructions and it's not rocket science. If a module is not unloaded before it is overwritten, what happens when an active program that was using the original module subsequently retrieves data from it? Depends on what data was changed, could be nothing, could be a lot.

Sid is unique and a bit more critical and the Debian position is that it should only be updated with apt-get dist-upgrade and never apt-get upgrade....they recommend synaptic and aptitude only as browsing tools and that all installations and upgrades be done outside of X. (you have to be in runlevel 3, or a lot of X is still loaded.)

Simply put, in each case it is much safer and it's real easy to do. The cli is your friend.

I changed my install of lmde to Sid a few weeks back and it's been super nice, I've have never had a single prob (knock on wood ), it only gets better. I also use the latest kernels from Damentz. This system is both rock solid and very, very fast on mediocre hardware. I also get great HD video performance as well as a number of other performance gains.

[linuxviolin]

Those are the official instructions from aptosid and the recommendations from Debian.

aptosid, yes, it's Sid... I just gave my "little" experience, lol. Never had problem with Synaptic in Testing. I'm probably a lucky man, right?

I changed my install of lmde to Sid (...) This system is both rock solid

Hmm

[Tony.B]

Tony.B, why you ask so many problems? Reinstall, simply. This is much simpler.

Yes, it is simpler. But it doesn't teach me anything. But maybe I'm wrong.

And I thought a forum was the right place to ask about problems. But maybe I'm wrong about that, too.




And simply reinstalling doesn't recover the stuff I stupidly forgot to back up. I know I'm not wrong about that.

[azathoth]

Tony.B, why you ask so many problems? Reinstall, simply. This is much simpler.

Yes, it is simpler. But it doesn't teach me anything. But maybe I'm wrong.

And I thought a forum was the right place to ask about problems. But maybe I'm wrong about that, too.




And simply reinstalling doesn't recover the stuff I stupidly forgot to back up. I know I'm not wrong about that.

I sure understand Tony. I think the prob here is that it is next to impossible for anyone here to know exactly what went awry or how far reaching it may be. It is unlikely that only X and the issue with the passwords are the only damage. In many cases things tend to unravel.

[Tony.B]

I had neglected to make regular back-ups and I would prefer not to have lost my last week's work

Understandable. I can give you this much hope there. If you know the document locations it would be possible to save them with the LiveCD.
(I am assuming you have no other OSs installed on the machine in question - if you did, it would be easier still. But the LiveCD will work fine.)
You would simply need to mount the affected partition and then email them to yourself as attachments using the LiveCD and any web mail service for a quick and dirty fix.

Can anybody talk me through the recovery procedure please? I have Linux Mint 9 installed on the same laptop, and I know the location of the documents I especially wish to retrieve from my dead version of LMDE.

Thanks

[msuggs]

Can anybody talk me through the recovery procedure please? I have Linux Mint 9 installed on the same laptop, and I know the location of the documents I especially wish to retrieve from my dead version of LMDE.

If you know the location of the documents it's a simple matter of going there and backing up your data with a usb drive or cd etc.

My other thought is, what do you mean by 'know the location'? Do you know what drive or partition this data is on and can you mount it in Mint9?

[Tony.B]

If you know the location of the documents it's a simple matter of going there and backing up your data with a usb drive or cd etc.

Yes, I know where the documents are... they're on my LMDE desktop (so they're in my Desktop file). But I can't get there because I can't open LMDE.

My other thought is, what do you mean by 'know the location'? Do you know what drive or partition this data is on and can you mount it in Mint9?

Yes. LMDE is mounted on sda3. LM9 is on sda1. I don't know anything about sda2.

[azathoth]

If you know the location of the documents it's a simple matter of going there and backing up your data with a usb drive or cd etc.

Yes, I know where the documents are... they're on my LMDE desktop (so they're in my Desktop file). But I can't get there because I can't open LMDE.

My other thought is, what do you mean by 'know the location'? Do you know what drive or partition this data is on and can you mount it in Mint9?

Yes. LMDE is mounted on sda3. LM9 is on sda1. I don't know anything about sda2.

Okay, from lm9 open up nautilus and in the left panel make sure the view is set to places. Now you should notice some entries like "50GB Filesystem" or whatever your lmde install was residing on as well as any other partitions you may have. Look for the approximate size of sda3 in any case.
Open it up, sometimes it will ask for a password.
Anyway you need to navigate to /home/yourusername/Desktop and your stuff should be there. I am assuming that your /home is on sda3, otherwise adjust things accordingly..

[Tony.B]

Okay, from lm9 open up nautilus and in the left panel make sure the view is set to places. Now you should notice some entries like "50GB Filesystem" or whatever your lmde install was residing on as well as any other partitions you may have. Look for the approximate size of sda3 in any case.
Open it up, sometimes it will ask for a password.
Anyway you need to navigate to /home/yourusername/Desktop and your stuff should be there. I am assuming that your /home is on sda3, otherwise adjust things accordingly..

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I've managed to copy the stuff I wanted from LMDE to LM9. I had no idea this was possible, and yet it was SO simple.
Now presumably I can reinstall LMDE from my original DVD. Do I have to delete the old version first, or simply dump the replacement in the same place?

Cheers
Tony
________________________________________________________
Mental note: Always keep a spare OS in the boot - and make sure it's pumped up.

[msuggs]

I've managed to copy the stuff I wanted from LMDE to LM9. I had no idea this was possible, and yet it was SO simple.

Sweet, I'm glad it worked out well for you

I've managed to copy the stuff I wanted from LMDE to LM9. I had no idea this was possible, and yet it was SO simple.
Now presumably I can reinstall LMDE from my original DVD. Do I have to delete the old version first, or simply dump the replacement in the same place?

Yes and no, just choose to reformat the partition you are installing LMDE on to during the install process. This will wipe the original and replace it with your new install.

[cwsnyder]

^ LMDE doesn't have and will ignore an xorg.conf so I'd imagine the first step would generate an error. Reconfiguring the xserver won't do alot as X is already working.

Next thing I would try is to purge and reinstall gdm

Ctrl-alt-f1

sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdm3

I would make a correction to this post. While LMDE has a minimal /etc/X11/xorg.conf, it DOES pay attention to custom xorg.conf changes if you are using non-standard hardware. If you have problems automatically configuring hardware, you can still make changes to your xorg.conf file and X will pay attention to them. I have a monitor with an EDID which does not contain the proper information for Linux drivers (although it works in WinXP, Vista and Win7). Most Live disks give me a maximum 800x600 display (display native is 1280x1024), but my xorg.conf file gives me back the native and 1024x768 XGA modes of which the monitor and nVidia 2600 card are capable.

[ej64]

... Next thing I would try is to purge and reinstall gdm

Ctrl-alt-f1

sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdm3

Thanks, omns, for this advice. Following these instructions seems to have changed things:

(a) sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm3 gave me a long list of warnings
(b) sudo apt-get update produced a huge list of "failed to fetch" files.
(c) sudo apt-get install gdm3 didn't give me any OMiNouS messages. (Sorry, omns, I couldn't resist that!)

Now, when I attempt to reboot LMDE, I no longer get the blue log-in screen. It seems to remain in terminal. Is this progress or regress?

An explanation to the above:
I suspect Tony usually has a wifi connection. This connection stops when not logged in to the DE. So he was able to purge gdm3 but not to update and reinstall gdm3.

I usually switch to runlevel 3 on a console to update my crunchbang statler/testing installation and always have to use a cable connection. The solution would have been to use an ethernet cable to connect to the router.

[msuggs]

I suspect Tony usually has a wifi connection. This connection stops when not logged in to the DE. So he was able to purge gdm3 but not to update and reinstall gdm3.

I usually switch to runlevel 3 on a console to update my crunchbang statler/testing installation and always have to use a cable connection. The solution would have been to use an ethernet cable to connect to the router.

Yes, hence my advice in the previous post to use an ethernet cable to update/upgrade his system. I guess I assumed that it would be understood that an ethernet cable would needed for this task as well and should have repeated that advice.